Monday, April 12, 2010

7 quick takes: Not so boring weekend

For not having much planned this weekend, Andi and I kept pretty busy. Here's 7 quick takes of our "not so boring" weekend.

ONE: I met Andi at his office on Friday after work so we could drive to happy hour together. Andi's friend Joe got a new job so he was hosting a 'last day of the job I hated' party at Brit's Pub in downtown Minneapolis. I might have told you this before ... I absolutely hate driving in downtown Minneapolis so to avoid an all-out panic attack, Andi and I met first, left my car at his office and drove together. Side note: this is one thing I love about my husband. While he realizes that leaving my car at his office and then having to go get it at some point during the weekend will surely be a pain in the ass, he simply agrees and lets me do it anyway. So, we went to happy hour and had a fun time. As I said in the post before, I was the only girl there and I always have so much fun in those situations. Listening to boys 'gossip' is funny.

On Saturday morning, I got an email from one of Andi's friends who also works at Andi's office. He happened to notice a giant bulge coming out of the side of my front passenger wheel (keep in mind, my car was still parked in Andi's office parking lot at this point). The email said something to the effect of "giant bulge coming out of your tire....very unsafe to drive on ... you should get you car checked out immediately ... should be covered under your lease / car's warranty."

I read the email to Andi in near tears. I can't stand ABSOLUTELY DESPISE calling to question and/or make appointments for stuff like cars and loans and financial stuff. It's not that I can't do it; more that I don't know what to say, nor who to talk to and it makes me feel all stupid and girly. Sidenote: one of my favorite things about being married is that all responsibilities such as these, in my opinion, have now shifted to Andi. He, however, would disagree. So, I begged and pleaded for Andi to please, please, please call the dealership and make an appointment to get it fixed. In fact, in the heat of the moment I may have said something along the lines of "I'll do whatever you say for a WHOLE WEEK if you just take care of it for me, puuulease!" And so he did. $162 dollars later, I have a brand new tire. Which, by the way, was covered neither by my VW lease nor the car's warranty. Apparently tires are not covered by such policies. And so, friends, do tell me again ... what's the point of having a new car under lease with a 5-year warranty?? Damn you, fine print.

TWO: On Saturday, we went waaay up to the Northern 'burbs to see our friends Rick, Shelley and their new baby Paige. What a little cutie. How quickly you forget just how itsy bitsy newborns are. My favorite part of our visit: when I came up from downstairs and saw Andi holding her, looking all loving with her tiny little hands and her pretty pink blanket. "Looks good on ya," I said. He smiled and handed the baby to me. Shucks. No baby for us ... yet.

THREE: Saturday night we had 2 birthday parties to attend: a suprise party for Andi's uncle Greg and another other for Andi's friend Kevin. We had a great time at both; TONS of yummy food and lots of catching up with the family and friends. A few pics from Greg's 50th:

After's Greg's party, we hopped over to St. Louis Park to celebrate Kevin's birthday. Andi brought Kevin a gigantic bottle of Jagermeister for his birthday so we had a few Red Bull Jager shots and had fun catching up with Kevin and Kendall.

FOUR: Yesterday (Sunday) was a gorgeous, sunny day in St. Paul. After church, Andi and I picked up Chloe and headed to Fort Snelling State Park which is about a 10 minute drive from our house. We'd never been there before - a huge park with lots of walking trails, a beach (wha? in Minnesota! Ok, it's on the river and well, who the hell would want to swim in the Mississippi ... but it's still a beach) and a cute little tabernacle with picnic tables, a playground, etc. Just a few weeks earlier, most of this area was underwater when the Mississippi was floading in areas of St. Paul. Parts were a little muddy and a little swampy smelling but overall a really great park area.

So we walked around the trails for an hour or so and Chloe was so happy to be outside. At one point, she started rolling in the mud like a little piggy. I'd never seen her do that before! She was covered in mud and dirt ... but I let her play and gave her a pretty thorough bath when we got home.

Chloe rolling in the mud

My little muddy puppy

We went to pickup my car after the park and I felt a little embarrassed - like one of the parents with super dirty, dishelved kids. "Don't judge, people! She usually all clean and pretty!"

FIVE: I used my new lawn blower on Sunday. Last year, I threw a pretty gigantic fit when this thing showed up from Amazon on my doorstep in oh, like October (read: October = snow in Minnesota). I told Andi he had a serious addiction to spending and he needed to stop throwing money away on crap like lawn blowers. (For those of you who haven't seen our yard, it's about the size of a kiddle swimming pool. You could likely give it a big pheeew and blow about the leaves from our yard). What's more, Andi doesn't do the yard work - I do - so had no idea why he thought we needed one. But, complaining aside and six months later, we have a new lawn blower so I was determined to test it out. I assembled the blower all by myself the last week and was very proud of myself in doing so. And yesterday, I gave our yard a good blow, er uh, suck actually.

I have to admit, the lawn blower/sucker is actually pretty awesome. It mulched up all the leaves into teeny, tiny pieces. Just don't tell Andi I said so. :)

Also, my spring flowers are finally blooming!

SIX: Last week I made the Pioneer Woman's Baked Lemon Pasta. It was delicous and really easy to make. After dinner, Andi and I made a few cocktails and headed on a long walk to Lindsay's house to visit her and her new boyfriend Chad. About half way there (she lives a couple miles away) my stomach started to gurgle and something just didn't feel right. Which, by the way, almost never happens to me w/o the assistance of 17 glasses of prune juice. The farther we walked, the more I thought I was literally going to die. At one point, I gripped Andi's shoulder with panic - we were smack dab in the middle of residential neighborhoods and not anywhere near a bathroom. We finally made it to Lindsay's and I bee-lined into the bathroom where I stayed for much of our visit. Poor Chad - I'm a wee bit embarrassed to see him at the next family function. I imagine our greeting will be something like "Hi, nice to see you again. Sorry the second time I met you I spent most of the time in your girlfriend's bathroom. It, ur, must have been the Baked Lemon Pasta."

Was it really the Baked Lemon Pasta? I can't be sure. Maybe I'd recommend going light on the heavy cream or advise against taking a long walk afterwards. :)

SEVEN: Just in time for summer, I have a tasty new cocktail to share with you: The Cucumber Martini. It's probably nothing new, but it's new to me and very refreshing. Here's how to make it:

1. Take 2 martini glasses and fill with ice water. Chill by setting aside
2. Add 4oz. of gin to a shaker and fill with ice. Allow to chill for 30 sec. or so
3. Dump ice water currently in martini glasses in sink
4. Pour (booze, without ice) into each martini glass, 2 oz. each
5. Slice cucumber and place a few slices in each glass